Unwinding for artist Charlie Wicking consists of sitting out on the porch in Homebush (outside Mackay) and moving paint and particles around a canvas as she ponders the devastation in the world and in her life.

By day she's a nurse in an emergency department dealing with individual tragedy, when she comes home to watch the news and sees victims of disaster she heads for salvation in her art work.

The scenic location buried among trees and hills spanning views across the Pioneer Valley and Sarina Shire, it isn't hard to get in the mood to create art, but the location becomes more of tool as Charlie uses nature as her studio.

Painting is spiritual as Charlie describes often losing herself in the work as hours pass by without notice.

"I could lose hours at a time in Homebush because I start painting and I'm outside and I don't usually have a watch on and I can sit outside for hours and not realise the sun's going down or I haven't cooked tea and I've spend half a day painting it's lovely.

As Charlie talks she continues a painting inspired by the recent disasters in the Pacific Islands and Indonesia, choosing brown and white and moving the paint in a circular motion.

"For this one if I was thinking about all the earthquakes around at the moment I'd probably go more in a circular pattern and for me that would represent the trauma, physical and emotional, for the people involved," she says.

Then Charlie begins to add 'structure' to the piece by using cuttlefish recently found at a nearby beach.

"To me that represents debris, it could represent people or it could represent homes being thrown into the turmoil, whatever had structure to start with.

"The beauty of these cuttlefish that we found down at one of the local beaches is that it can be broken down so easily which is just beautiful... it's quite a unique little substance," she says.

Within fifteen minutes Charlie has produced the beginnings of a symbolic and abstract piece, although it's not likely to make her next exhibition.

Charlie is set to open her first individual exhibit at the Town Hall in Mackay, a daunting prospect for a part time artist, although not used to the critique she's not fazed about the prospect of receiving artistic criticism.

"If you don't get it or you want to criticise that's about you that's not about me, I can deal with that," she says.

While still learning the craft as she juggles work and family life Charlie has already managed to sell some of her work something she initially felt strange about considering the effort she put into the creation.

"I've learnt to realise that I can do another one, it may not turn out exactly the same but the essence is still there," she says.